Tangy white grape nose with a nice typical Berliner Weisse look, and the taste is nice, too--it has biscuit, grain, lemon peel, grape, lots of nice dry puckeriness with a bit of salt on the end. Not as sour as others of the style I've had, but actually more drinkable for that. Sparkly carbonation that scrubs the tongue a bit.

Note: this is definitely not a beer to be served ice-cold, as I hated the first half-glass and then started to appreciate it as it warmed a bit.

A great label design on this one...
Pours a golden yellow with a light head that disappears within a minute. The initial scent is that of a overripe pear with a strong barnyard and wet hay scent that seems quite strong for a Berliner Weisse.
The flavors are intense even when straight out of a fridge. There's crisp apples, hard cider, and a lot of lemon flavor. The lemon accent is extremely strong and goes very well with the more dark grassy scents coming off the top of this beer. Throughout the glass the beer continues to be heavily carbonated, giving it a very light feel. The balance is perfect on all levels, its crisp and clean yet has strong notes of a deeper beer on the nose.
One of the best BW styles i've had.

Served in a 500 ml weizen glass. Glass of cold water on the side to sip from periodically.

Appearance: As served the beer is a well hazed bright golden straw yellow color with a thin head that dissipates rapidly (as expected with a Berliner Weisse) leaving only a small patch of foam and a small ring of foam.

Smell: The aroma is fresh, clean and slightly fruity.

Taste: The flavor is fresh, clean, slightly sweet, slightly fruity and slightly tart and very refreshing on a humid day. The malt and wheat backbone provides its own blend of flavor components that remain in the background but support the tart fruitiness very well. (This is a subtly flavored and balanced beer.)

Mouthfeel: The mouth feel is light bodied and crisp with lots of active carbonation. The finish lacks bitterness but is filled with tart dryness as any residual sweetness just disappears.

Drinkability: Once readjusted to what to expect of a Berliner Weisse (I've not had a true example of the style in several years) the quality and subtlety of this beer become clear. It is quite easy to sip my way through this beer. It would be good to have a second, and I won't hesitate to have this beer again when I have the chance.

A: Pours a beautiful golden wheat color with a nice fluffy head
S: Lemon, clove and some dankness
T: tart up front with some spice and dankness
MF: Refreshing.
O: This beer tastes like summer. Perfect beer for a summer bbq.

Half liter bottle purchased from Capone's for $7. A bit steep but the only berliner weiss that I have been able to get my hands on has been festina peche, which I did like, but I figured it was time for a real, traditional rendition. Poured into a weizen glass.

Big fluffy white head, tons of CO2 streaming up to support it. Eventually got all the beer into the glass including the dregs. The beer is a very cloudy straw color, nice looking, somewhat poor retention and no lacing due to the acidity. Looks amazing.

Smell is fruit, yeast, and some tartness. A bit more subtle than I expected, but in a good way.

Taste is mostly tart, but not overpoweringly so. Wheat and Barley malt are in there as well. Unlike Festina Peche, this still tastes more like a beer than anything else. Doesn't taste too sour until the last sip. Finish is sour (good) but does kind of linger (bad).

Mouthfeel is light, highly carbonated, but the yeast sediment does fill it out a bit and gives it that indescribable weizen feel.

Drinkability is perfect. I would drink this beer all summer long if I could get it cheaply, which I don't think is really possible. If you see it, definately pick it up. If you are wary, perhaps try Festina Peche from dogfish head first and go from there.

T: Slightly sour, exceptionally crisp and dry. Sharp without much of an aftertaste. I could have used a touch more snap from the lacto b. bacteria, but it was quite good.

M: Clean and light

O: One of the most refreshing beers I've had. Think of a sharper, dryer S. Dupont with more fizz. Took me all of 3 minutes to guzzle it. Almost TOO refreshing, if that can actually be considered a fault. ultra-drinkable.

A. Strongly sediment-clouded dark golden color with a single finger of frothy whipped head that stuck around for several minutes but has minimalistic lacing.

S. Strong lemon yogurt aroma combined with some minor vanilla bean and even lighter banana notes and I can just make out the wheat malt aroma underneath all the olfactory tang.

T. Puckery acidic lemon and lactic sourness abound! Almost as acidic as a gueze, but not quite. Tiny moments of wheatey malt and funky yeastiness bob up and down in a turbulent ocean of sour tartness. Very dry and sharp overall just as it ought to be!

M. Lighter body with champagne-like bubbles, dry and crisp extended finish after the fade of sour.

This is a 'Berliner Weisse'--a sour wheat bear that used to be (in the 1800s) the most popular beer in Northern Germany. Syrups are sometimes added to this style of beer to cut the sourness. Napoleon himself praised this beer as the "Champagne of the North". It's a cross between champagne and beer: sharp, rather tart, and very very bubbly. The citrus is light and delicious. A great--and fun--summer drink. Sip, don't gulp this one.

consumed on 6/30, while I was "on Hiatus" during a beautiful summer afternoon. picked up locally. enjoyed from my better half goblet.

a - brew poured a pale hazy yellow with 2 fingers plus of fizzy bubbly head that all but evaporated leaving a skin of bubbles on the surface of the glass. no lacing to speak of, when swirling the glass the head moved as a whole. visible carbonation could be seen in the murky yellowness when held to the light.

s - as soon as i poured it, the sweet smell of lemon grassiness filled the air. upon closer inspection, some wheat and orange peel and lemon rind. soft funkiness in the background.

o - overall, i expected something a bit softer, but was pleasantly surprised with how good this is. perfect pairing with today's 90+ degree weather. really a must try for any fan of berliner or anyone curiuos about the style. just an awesome beer for summer. fruity and not too dry...just plain old refreshing.

Crackery grain is swept asside by a wave of lemon driven acidity that gives a refreshing zip to this unique beer. No sweetness, no bitterness, but a moderate level of acidity and lemon flavors that are reminiscent of fresh lemonade.

The mouthfeel is crisp and sharp, the acid makes the carbonation seem even more pronounced.

Off the charts drinkability, if you enjoy tart beers. The only thing holding me back from drinking this allday everyday is the $5.99/16.9oz bottle price tag. A lovely beer that really shows what an under produced, but fascinating beer style Berliner Weiss is.

Great beer! Poured with a fine, white head and no lace. Color is a clear, light yellow. Aroma is tart, grassy, lemony, berry. Taste has tartness in the fore and the nose qualities. Body and carbonation are perfect for the style. Finish is clean and short to medium in length. Excellent summer beer alone and also equally good with a bit of fruit syrup such as raspberry. Would really like to get some more and lay it by.

Picked up a bottle at a local bottle shop and poured it into 2 tulip glasses. Gave a quick swirl to pull the yeast off the bottom of the bottle and into the beer.

Hazy, light straw in color, the bottle gushed like crazy, but I guess that shoulda been expected when I didn't keep it in the fridge for 24 hours before opening. At least I managed to save most of what gushed...ample carbonation creates a huge head, but no retention. Surprisingly, though, for a beer with almost no residual sugar, if any, a swirl produces cabernet-like legs.

The aroma is full of tart wheat and a light funkiness. The tartness is a clean and citrusy lactic sourness that brings on grapefruit and lemon zest. There are also some clove esters from the sacc. strain. The flavor follows suit beautifully. Clean, crisp, and tart, this is what a berlinerweiss should taste like. Complex enough to keep drinking and sour enough for me to remember that this isn't just a weissbier.

Light and spritzy on the palate, this is definitely a summer beer. Easily drinkable, this is something I will return to again and again, especially with its sub-$5 price tag. I wish there were more of these that were so widely available.

Body is pale yellow, with a slight greenish tinge. Even though the bottle was refrigerated, it was a bit of a gusher, but I had the glass ready, and none was lost. But a very gentle pour still produced a voluminous head. I let it settle for a few minutes and then it poured better.

Smells of lemon, light malt, hay, and a little spice (from the lactobacillus).

Tastes very fresh, light, and tart. It has a nice level of acidity, and there is a nice lemon flavor over a light malt backbone. The finish is dry with just a slight bit of lemon rind bitterness and spice. It is really refreshing.

The body is light and the carbonation is fizzy, giving this a lively and refreshing mouthfeel.

This is a fine example of the Berliner Weiss style. Very refreshing and at 5.0%, highly drinkable, although it is fairly tart. To moderate the acidity, Germans add sweet syrups to the beer, but I prefer consuming it with food where the acidity can do its thing. This would pair very well with roast chicken, seafood, and cheeses.

Taste: Opens with a mellow bready flavor that is quickly joined by a tart lemon element that grows more sour by the minute; after the swallow, the lemony tartness continues to play off the bland base in a way that is intriguing and satisfying; as the beer warms, it betrays a hint of banana that wasn't there at colder temperature

This is an absolute perfect example of a berliner weisse. I can't imagine drinking it with syrup, though. It pours with little head, and it's a pale yellow with cloudy yeast. The aroma is slight lemon and light flowers with yeast. Mouthfeel is spritzy, the tartness of the taste changing the mouthfeel. Refreshing, light, and extremely quaffable. I'm glad the world's oldest brewery hasn't sold out.

a - pours a bright amber color, one-inch white head, not retention or lacing, hazy with lots of sediment

s - great aroma, lots of funkiness a sour smell, some lemon citrus as well as wheat and a bit of hay

t - nice crisp funky tartness up front, mild wheat sweetness underlying a lemony sourness on the mid-palate, more crisp tartness and funk on the finish mixed with a little graininess, no alcohol detectable

Pours a very light, pale straw yellow color. Tons and tons of carbonation jets up from the nucleation. Lots of foamy white bubbles form at first but soon disappear. This beer basically looks just like an adjunct lager. Only with hella yeast sediment. Floaties everywhere! Weird, alien life form floaties! I think these floaties might be the Arsenic microbes that NASA found. So yeah, it doesn't look pretty. And I don't have any woodruff syrup to gussy things up. For the style? I have to imagine that this is spot-on. Some beers just can't be pretty.

1809 smells, in part, like a typical wheat beer. You've got some zippy tang, some banana ester. But what dominates is the tartness. This is not a funky beer, no. This is a tart beer. Lemon juice everywhere. There's other stuff too: some carbonate smells, something almost milky. But that tart lemon is what stays with you.

The beer smells way more tart than it actually tastes. There is just enough sharp lemon juice sourness to encourage further drinking. You've got wheat bread flavors everywhere, some lactose like flavors, a bit of water (yeah, it gets watery around the middle of the drink - to the point where I thought I had lemon water in my mouth). This is very good. Light, tart, refreshing.

The mouthfeel has a flaw - that watery business that I just mentioned. Other than that, the carbonation is wonderfully lively and the body as thin as could be. The drinkability? Off the charts. This is one of the most drinkable beers I've ever had. Lightly tart, the beer just commands continued quaffing. Amazing.

How is this style of beer not more popular? It's great great great. This particular beer needs to be in six-packs as soon as years ago. It's awesome.

Poured from a 16 OZ bottle into a mug. The appearance is a bright slightly cloudy golden color with a small white head. The aroma is full of citrus, hops and grass. The taste is slightly tart with a lemon feel.